Country Music's Biggest Night

Last night was a big night for country's finest at the CMA Awards in Nashville, TN. There were so many great performances, funny jokes and interesting outfits it's hard to know where to start with my re-cap. Since I am not a fashion blogger, and this is a blog for an entertainment venue, not InStyle - I should probably leave Natasha Bedingfield and LeAnn Rimes' fashion choices alone and focus on the music :).

Mostly, I was really excited to watch the show because we have so many CMA winners and legends coming through the Arena between now and February, that this show was a nice sneak peek at what to expect in the coming months!

If you didn't catch the show, The Band Perry pretty much stole the spotlight the entire night. In their first time at the CMA Awards as nominees, the band took home three awards including Single and Song of the Year as well as New Artist of the Year, and gave a killer performance. What an amazing night for them! They will be playing here Saturday night with Reba, who presented the award for Entertainer of the Year and is also a 4-time winner of the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year award. We do have limited tickets still available - click here. I am getting more and more excited about this show as Saturday gets closer!

Our boy Blake Shelton also had a big night taking home the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year award. And with his wife Miranda Lambert's win for Female Vocalist of the Year, it seems Tim & Faith have been ousted as the reigning King and Queen of country music.

It wouldn't be a country music awards show if some artists didn't bring in their friends from other genres to lend a helping hand. Grace Potter, Matt Nathanson, Natasha Bedingfield and Lionel Ritchie all made performances on the show.

Even though the night focused on a lot of newcomers, country veteran Martina McBride gave a touching performance amid a sea of cell phone lights doing exactly what she does best - bringing songs with a message to life. The 4-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year winner showed once again that she can mesmerize an audience simply by singing a song that resonates with so many people.

In their fourth year as hosts, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood left no tabloid favorites untouched making jokes about everyone from Hank Williams Jr. and Eddie Murphy to Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber - with a little help from Little Jimmy Dickens.

Overall I thought this was one of the better CMA awards shows in recent memory. It made me even more excited when I saw all of these artists who will be performing at our Arena soon: